The year was '75, one year after the revolution that ended a 40 year long dictatorship. The order to release the ultramarine countries colonized by Portugal during more than 400 years had been recently given, providing freedom to countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau, Cape Verde, S.Tomé & Príncipe. In some of these countries the war had been long and tiring both for Portugal and the native inhabitants. And within this framing events, this album was moulded and inspired. So some comprehension on these events is absolutely necessary for one to be able to understand what the album is all about. The lyrics are sung in Portuguese language and they glorify the independency movements of Angola, Mozambique and Guiné-Bissau. They also hit deep and hard the belicous efforts of pre-revolution Portugal to maintain the colonies, while releasing the common soldier from guilt but incriminating the dictatorship regime that sent people to war. Musically, the album stands for what's best in progressive Rock of the 70's, using heavy guitar alternated with some acoustic parts, organ and piano arrangements, moog and even African percussion to deliver an unique blend of Progressive Rock fusion. Some of the lyrics and poems were written by the main Folk/protest singers at the time: José Mario Branco, Sergio Godinho and Fausto.
This album can be called a conceptual album made by the core-members of XARHANGA, under their personal names. Perhaps because they were embarassed with the "amateurish" proto-Metal they played 2 years before in the two singles they recorded in the year of 1973. In fact, nowadays, these two singles are classic pieces of a formative period in Portugal for Heavy Rock, so we decided to use on this reissue the XARHANGA name for the album too. This is our tribute in PORTUGUESE PROGRESSIVE PEARLS to Julio Pereira, a musician with an unique talent who was also involved in the "Mestre" line-up of Petrus Castrus, still recording today, having a cult name since the early 80's in the Portuguese roots music scene. Welcome to the first volume of a series of Portuguese Progressive Rock pearls from the glorious seventies!